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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Wedding Planning Budget - Controlling Your Wedding Costs

The number one issue that many couples fight about is money.
Tension around money does not necessarily start after the couple has
been married for a few years. There is a great deal of stress that goes
with planning a beautiful wedding, and money issues can really add to
this tension. It is very important to begin a wedding planning budget
right at the start of your wedding plans. It is also equally important
that a couple stick to this budget. Failure to do so can result in
added stress for years to come.

Planning a wedding without a
budget can land you into some serious financial debt. Although a
wedding budget does not sound like a glamorous thing, it doesn't have to
be a bad thing at all. So what is the key to planning a successful
budget? As it will be throughout your marriage ... honesty, openness
and two-way communication are an absolute must.

Newly-engaged
couples must discuss how each envisions their special day. It is a
wrong assumption for the bride to think that the groom-to-be does not
care about the details. It is, after all, the man's special day as
well, and he does have a family to please also.

Getting Started
After
the excitement of being engaged wears off, both the bride and groom
need to find a quiet place where they can discuss what is important to
each other in regards to the wedding day. You not only want to talk to
your partner about the wedding plans, but you also want to listen to
what they have to say. First make a list of the absolute essentials
such as: a caterer, photography, and wedding rings. Then create a list
of the extra things that you both want such as: arriving in a limo or
horse-drawn carriage, a prime-rib or lobster dinner, a wedding on the
beach, flower arrangements and other wants. This information will be
useful in helping you create your budget.

Assessing Your Finances
After
you have finalized the list of important items, you will now need to do
some number crunching. Determining your current financial situation is
a very important necessity in helping to create your budget and can be
broken down into these important steps:

Determine how much you will have to commit to saving from your regular income streams.

Assess how much money you currently have access to from various
areas such as: stocks/bonds, real estate, trust funds or saving
accounts.

Determine if you can expect income from other streams such as friends and family.

If you're wedding date is set to occur many months from now then you
might want to consider opening a high-interest bearing bank account to
get a little extra income.

If you will be getting extra finances from other members
of your family, then it is important to not make unrealistic demands on
what they will be offering you. Keep an open mind and take whatever
others are willing to kindly offer you. It is important to not dwell on
how much or little they will be contributing to your wedding.
Disappointment and anger can only lead to additional stress that you
don't need.

Make A List
Once you have a better
understanding of where your finances are coming from, you will then be
able to see how much you can allocate to various costs. You now need to
make another list of all the wedding related expenses and place a
percentage or dollar amount as to how much you are willing to spend for
each item. Some of your expenses may include:

Wedding Dress ($2000)

Honeymoon ($2000)

Wedding Favors ($2000)

Wedding Reception ($8000)

Tuxedos ($1000)

Wedding Invitations ($500)

Wedding Cake ($900)

Wedding Music ($800)

Wedding Flowers ($900)

Wedding Photography ($600)

Wedding Decorations ($500)

Bridesmaids Dresses ($1000)

Laying out each individual item will aid you when it
comes time to contracting out various services. You must be aware that
if you should exceed you budgeted amount in one category, then you will
need to cut back on costs from another item in order to keep the budget
in balance.
Finally, to help simplify a number of wedding budget
planning tasks, you may want to consider using a wedding budget
worksheet, software and the many other automated tools that are
available online.